Pope Speaks on Fatima Feast Day

A photostatic copy of a page from Ilustração Portugueza, October 29, 1917

Today is the Roman Catholic feast day for “Our Lady of Fatima”. On May 13, 1917, an apparition who did not initially give her name, began a series of monthly visits seen by three Portuguese children: Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco. This culminated in some type of change in the sky on October 13, 1917 that many others reported about.

Here is some of what Pope Benedict said about it today:

…Our Lady of Fatima. Dearly beloved brothers and sisters, I too have come as a pilgrim to Fatima, to this “home” from which Mary chose to speak to us in modern times…

We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete…

Vatican Radio, May 13, 2010. http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=392469)

This suggests, like many of us who have reviewed differing accounts of the “third secret” believe, that part of the message from Fatima was that part of the Catholic Church would ultimately become unfaithful to it. And this is not just limited to the sex scandals that have rocked the Vatican around the world (including in Southern California).

Also notice what happened when he was flying to Portugal a few days ago:

…Pope Benedict XVI said the message of Fatima shows that attacks on the Pope and the Church also come from sins inside the Church. These internal attacks are seen in “a really terrifying way” in sexual abuse, he remarked while calling for penance and purification.

…He was asked if the Fatima apparition’s predictions of times of trial for the Church could be applied to the sexual abuse crisis.

In the message of Fatima, Pope Benedict answered, we can discover that attacks on the Pope and the Church “come not only from the outside, but the suffering of the Church comes from inside the Church, from sins that exist inside the Church.” (Pope: Fatima Message Shows Catholic Church Attacked By Internal Sins. Eurasia Review, May 11, 2010. http://www.eurasiareview.com/2010/05/pope-fatima-message-shows-catholic.html).

The Pontiff’s current position does not seem to be exactly the same as he wrote about it in the year 2000, which was prior to becoming pope:

A careful reading of the text of the so-called third “secret” of Fatima, published here in its entirety long after the fact and by decision of the Holy Father, will probably prove disappointing or surprising after all the speculation it has stirred. No great mystery is revealed; nor is the future unveiled. (Ratzinger Joseph, Prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fatima: Theological Commentary. 2000. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html)

Has he changed his views?

The reality is that there are many private Catholic prophecies/writings that suggest that an antipope will arise and betray the Catholic Church. This is also consistent with biblical prophecy about the betrayal of a city that resembles Rome by the final Beast power (Revelation 17:15-16).

Some Fatima watchers have claimed that something negative was to happen in the Church of Rome in 1972 and would fulfill part of one of the secrets of Fatima (see also Pope Benedict in Fatima, Portugal).

That view is also consistent with views espoused by at least two relatively recent Catholic leaders:

Pope Paul VI spoke on June 29, 1972 at St. Peter’s Basilica and said: “By means of some fissure, the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God…(Ligourian, Volume 60, 1972, p. 70)

Vatican Chief Exorcist Priest Gabriele Amorth said: “he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon“. He added: “When one speaks of ‘the smoke of Satan’ [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia.”” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7056689.ece

Both biblical and Catholic prophecy tell of a coming ecumenical religious leader (who sounds like an antipope) that will not really believe in his faith. Such leaders are already in the Vatican if people such as Priest Amoth can be believed (see also Vatican’s Chief Exorcist Claims the Devil is in the Vatican).

It perhaps should be mentioned that it appears that from both biblical (cf. 1 Timothy 4:1-4) and Catholic prophecy, problems like this sex scandal were expected to affect the Church of Rome in the end times (see Vatican sex scandals may fulfill Catholic prophecy for details). And this is to apparently coincide with an ecumenical leader who rise up, and be trusted by many (biblically known as The King of the North) along with an ecumenical pope who is expected to make changes to the Church. These leaders are alive today (see also Guttenberg holds military meeting in Berlin. Might he become the King of the North?). One is likely to be an antipope who will become the final Antichrist.

And it may be that Pope Benedict XVI somewhat confirmed that this today.

For more information on Fatima and other mystic Catholic claims, please check out the following:

Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Apparitions Do you know much about Mary? Are the apparitions real? What happened at Fatima? What might they mean for the rise of the ecumenical religion of Antichrist? Are Protestants moving towards Mary? How do the Orthodox view Mary? How might Mary view her adorers?
Do Certain Catholic Prophecies About Antichrist Warn Against Jesus? Will the final “Anti-Christ” be Jewish, insist on Saturday, be opposed to the trinity, and bring in the millennium? Certain Catholic writings indicate this, while others take a different view, but what does the Bible show?
Catholic Prophecies: Do They Mirror, Highlight, or Contradict Biblical Prophecies? People of all faiths may be surprised to see what various Roman and Orthodox Catholic prophets have been predicting as many of their predictions will be looked to in the 21st century.